| First Author | Thorel F | Year | 2010 |
| Journal | Nature | Volume | 464 |
| Issue | 7292 | Pages | 1149-54 |
| PubMed ID | 20364121 | Mgi Jnum | J:159291 |
| Mgi Id | MGI:4442264 | Doi | 10.1038/nature08894 |
| Citation | Thorel F, et al. (2010) Conversion of adult pancreatic alpha-cells to beta-cells after extreme beta-cell loss. Nature 464(7292):1149-54 |
| abstractText | Pancreatic insulin-producing beta-cells have a long lifespan, such that in healthy conditions they replicate little during a lifetime. Nevertheless, they show increased self-duplication after increased metabolic demand or after injury (that is, beta-cell loss). It is not known whether adult mammals can differentiate (regenerate) new beta-cells after extreme, total beta-cell loss, as in diabetes. This would indicate differentiation from precursors or another heterologous (non-beta-cell) source. Here we show beta-cell regeneration in a transgenic model of diphtheria-toxin-induced acute selective near-total beta-cell ablation. If given insulin, the mice survived and showed beta-cell mass augmentation with time. Lineage-tracing to label the glucagon-producing alpha-cells before beta-cell ablation tracked large fractions of regenerated beta-cells as deriving from alpha-cells, revealing a previously disregarded degree of pancreatic cell plasticity. Such inter-endocrine spontaneous adult cell conversion could be harnessed towards methods of producing beta-cells for diabetes therapies, either in differentiation settings in vitro or in induced regeneration. |
